User Reviews

This astonishing documentary takes place aboard a diamond dredger anchored off the coast of Namibia. The dredger is owned and operated by the De Beers Corporation, the world's largest diamond processing company. The crew is diverse and fractious: the engineers South African, the captain and cook Cuban, the security officer Israeli, and the deckhands Namibian. The South Africans are well educated and white (and one of them is bluntly racist), the Cubans are low key and friendly, the Israeli is a major league asshole whom everyone hates, and the Namibians are generally treated like dirt. Though there's clearly social stratification in the Spirit of Namibia, a leaky rustbucket that barely stays afloat, everyone aboard is clearly under the heel of De Beers, who constantly postpone vacations or medical leave. For 73 minutes you'll see life on board the good ship Free Trade, where workers from around the world produce vast wealth for their corporate masters whilst earning peanuts themselves (the Namibians earn around $150 a month). An astonishing indictment of capitalism that succeeds at every level and completely avoids polemic.